Xplane 12 Released

[Fielder 3,674]

Like most everyone else has reported, the downloading chokes and won't install XP12.

[Fielder 3,674]

If does offer great VR, I will purchase. Otherwise I don't see any reason for me to do that.

[mjrhealth 820]

For those who get the error, just hit continue a few times, it will go, Mine did but was missing terrain for airport (demo) and couldnt fix it but I have the basic install that works.

[rjack1282 316]

Ortho4XP and X-Organizer are working right out of the box.  You just have to point both to X-Plane 12.  I am going to rerun batch overlays on all my tiles to get the new buildings, trees, etc.

[Daytona125 225]

1 hour ago, Fielder said:

If does offer great VR, I will purchase. Otherwise I don't see any reason for me to do that.

Just tried it in vr and I am fairly happy with it. Performance seems better but the experience is about the same to me. You still have to assign a hot key to get rid of the mouse curser and the curser is the same as it was in 11, I prefer a pointy curser like the one in P3D or MSFS and I wish the mouse curser would auto-disappear as it does in the "other" sims . So far X-Plane is ok, so far I'm a little let down, I was expecting more. I still get run over by the fuel truck. But. It's just the first day....

[Fielder 3,674]

I'll have to keep trying to DL it.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

I'll probably do a mini review of the EA at some point - so far I've setup my controls to what they were in XP11, messed around with the graphics settings.  Overall it's a step up from 11 for sure.  I like the C750 - haven't really used the FMS yet.  The clouds are a step in the right direction...but still really lacking detail, maybe even less so than msfs.  I've always liked the control of custom Wx that XP has so this will be fun to setup approaches to mins again (something MSFS can't really do).  The G1000 appears to be the same one from 11 - could use a facelift imo.  I'm not fond of the AA options....  everything is very jaggy and 8x msaa hurts my performance too much (12700K / 32GB ram / GTX 1080 Ti @ 1440p ).  4X is tolerable for now.

I have a lot more tweaking to do before I can really write my impressions!

c7504 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

primus by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

xp12g1000 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

[scotchegg 4,186]

23 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

I have a lot more tweaking to do before I can really write my impressions!

How do you feel about the lighting? I can't quite judge whether it has or hasn't changed much. In some shots it definitely looks better and in others the same as XP11.

Also have you noticed any change in ground textures?

[blingthinger 649]

The new demo area (KPDX) is very well done. New textures all around.

Day lighting is fantastic. The atmosphere model is very nice.

It's obvious the new lighting engine will have been worth the wait, though night lighting is still work in progress. KPHX looked like a brightness test area just now. Very beta status. All the other airports I've been to are in a much better state.

Not much obvious change to night city lighting near or far. 

[abrams_tank 7,419]

The clouds need a lot more work. The performance I saw from live streams from various streamers was so so but it’s what I expected, since the engine is quite old and because of the better graphics in XP 12 (better graphics alone will lower the FPS), I’m sure LR did what they could to optimize and squeak out whatever FPS they could.

The trees are definitely better. The water is better as well. And the lighting is much better.

Maybe LR will be able to improve the clouds in the beta. But it’s a double edged sword to improve the clouds because the performance is already so so. LR doesn’t have much headroom in this case, so it will be a challenge for them.

Edited September 6, 2022 by abrams_tank

[abrams_tank 7,419]

25 minutes ago, scotchegg said:

How do you feel about the lighting? I can't quite judge whether it has or hasn't changed much. In some shots it definitely looks better and in others the same as XP11.

Also have you noticed any change in ground textures?

The lighting in XP 12 is much better than XP 11. Lighting in XP 11 is garbage, IMO.

[fogboundturtle 2,708]

Daytime lighting still need some work. Night time is better for sure

[abrams_tank 7,419]

4 hours ago, fogboundturtle said:

you would expect higher frame in XP12 with a system like yours.

Yeah, the FPS was so so from the streams that I saw. I would like to see a proper benchmark of XP 12 though with various systems and various settings. Hopefully, someone will do one on YouTube soon.

[mjrhealth 820]

1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

since the engine is quite old

Vulkan is not old, where did you get that from.

[mjrhealth 820]

2 hours ago, scotchegg said:

Also have you noticed any change in ground textures?

They stated early on they wont be doing any changes to ground textures. Im sure that will come, The only textures that should have being changed are airport runway and taxiways, I do wonder if the runway markings are now aligned correct that was supposed to be done with 12 as well.